 | This article needs additional citations for verification .(March 2024) |
West Germanic gemination was a sound change that took place in all West Germanic languages around the 3rd or 4th century AD. It affected consonants directly followed by /j/, which were generally lengthened or geminated in that position. Because of Sievers' law, only consonants immediately after a short vowel were affected by the process.
When followed by /j/, consonants were lengthened (doubled). The consonant /r/, whether original or from earlier /z/ through rhotacization, was generally not affected; it occasionally shows gemination in Old High German, but inconsistently and this may be an analogical change. In contrast, the second element of the diphthongs iu and au was still underlyingly the consonant /w/ at this time, and therefore was lengthened as well. [1]
In Proto-Germanic, /j/ only appeared at the beginning of a syllable, primarily as the onset of a variety of suffixes and endings. It alternated with its syllabic counterpart /ij/ in accordance with a phonological rule known as Sievers' law. This law states that consonantal /j/ appeared after a "light" syllable: one that contained a short vowel followed by at most one consonant. The syllabic allomorph /ij/ appeared after "heavy" syllables, which included syllables containing a long vowel, a diphthong, or ending in more than one consonant. As the gemination itself required the consonant to be directly followed by /j/, it therefore affected only light syllables; heavy syllables were not changed. Compare, for example, the Germanic verbs *fūlijaną 'to defile' and *fuljaną 'to fill, to make full', which appear in Old English as fȳlan and fyllan respectively, and in Old High German as fūlen and fullen; the first verb shows no gemination, while the second does. [1]
In the early history of most individual Germanic languages, syllabic /ij/ was generally lost, while consonantal /j/ was retained. Earlier consonantal /j/ is also lost, however, after a consonant that underwent gemination. Thus, /j/ remains only after /r/ (Old English werian < Proto-Germanic *warjaną), while /ij/ appears in all other cases, even those where Proto-Germanic had /j/ (such as *fuljaną above). It therefore appears that Sievers' law was still productive at this stage, and adapted to the new syllable length by changing the suffix from its consonantal to its syllabic variety.
West Germanic gemination also operated inconsistently on consonants followed by /l/ or /r/, e.g. Old English æppel 'apple' < Proto-Germanic *aplaz. In some cases this led to doublets, e.g. West Saxon Old English tēar 'tear (of the eyes)' < *tæher < Proto-Germanic *tahraz (without gemination) vs. Northumbrian Old English tæhher 'tear (of the eyes)' (with gemination).
Similar changes occurred in the history of Old Norse, although with a more limited scope. The change applied only to the combinations /kj/ and /ɡj/, which were lengthened to /kːj/ and /ɡːj/. Other consonants were not affected. Contrary to the changes in West Germanic, the /j/ remained nonsyllabic after the change, and was therefore retained rather than lost like syllabic /ij/ was in other Old Norse words.
This change particularly affected the infinitives of the first conjugation of weak verbs, which ended in *-(i)janą. It also affect the short-stemmed *ja(n)- and *jō(n)-stem nouns and adjectives. By historical times (c. 800-900 AD), all of the West Germanic languages except Old Saxon had lost medial syllabic /ij/, but not before any /j/ that it may have developed from had triggered i-mutation. It also triggered palatalization of velar consonants in Old English and Old Frisian: /kj/ and /gj/ were geminated into palatal/postalveolar /cː(ij)/ and /ɟː(ij)/, which then developed into geminate affricates / t t͡ʃ/ and / d d͡ʒ/, spelled ⟨cc⟩ and ⟨cg⟩ in Old English.
Examples:
| Proto-Germanic | Gothic | West Germanic | Old High German | Old Saxon | Old English | Old Norse | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| *hugjaną | hugjan | *huggijan(ą) | huggen | huggian | hycgan | hyggja | 'to think' (gemination also in ON) |
| *bidjaną | bidjan | *biddijan(ą) | bitten | biddian | biddan | biðja | 'to ask' |
| *hlahjaną | hlahjan | *hlahhijan(ą) | (h)lahhan | hlahhian | hlæhhan | hlæja (h lost in ON) | 'to laugh' |
| *wandijaną | wandjan | *wendijan(ą) | wenten | wendian | wendan | venda | 'to turn' (no gemination before -ij-) |
| *hailijaną | hailjan | *hailijan(ą) | heilen | hēlian | hǣlan | heila | 'to heal' (no gemination before -ij-) |
| *farjaną | farjan | *ferjan(ą) | ferien | ferian | ferian | ferja | 'to carry' (no gemination of r) |
| *nazjaną | nasjan | *nerjan(ą) | nerien | nerian | nerian | - | 'to heal' (no gemination of r from z) |
The Germanic languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family spoken natively by a population of about 515 million people mainly in Europe, North America, Oceania and Southern Africa. The most widely spoken Germanic language, English, is also the world's most widely spoken language with an estimated 2 billion speakers. All Germanic languages are derived from Proto-Germanic, spoken in Iron Age Scandinavia and Germany.
The Germanic umlaut is a type of linguistic umlaut in which a back vowel changes to the associated front vowel (fronting) or a front vowel becomes closer to (raising) when the following syllable contains, , or.
In linguistics, the Indo-European ablaut is a system of apophony in the Proto-Indo-European language (PIE).
Proto-Germanic is the reconstructed proto-language of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European languages.
Middle Dutch is a collective name for a number of closely related West Germanic dialects whose ancestor was Old Dutch. It was spoken and written between 1150 and 1500. Until the advent of Modern Dutch after 1500 or c. 1550, there was no overarching standard language, but all dialects were mutually intelligible. During that period, a rich Medieval Dutch literature developed, which had not yet existed during Old Dutch. The various literary works of the time are often very readable for speakers of Modern Dutch since Dutch is a rather conservative language.
In phonetics and phonology, gemination, or consonant lengthening, is an articulation of a consonant for a longer period of time than that of a singleton consonant. It is distinct from stress. Gemination is represented in many writing systems by a doubled letter and is often perceived as a doubling of the consonant. Some phonological theories use 'doubling' as a synonym for gemination, while others describe two distinct phenomena.
Consonant gradation is a type of consonant mutation found in some Uralic languages, more specifically in the Finnic, Samic and Samoyedic branches. It originally arose as an allophonic alternation between open and closed syllables, but has become grammaticalised due to changes in the syllable structure of the languages affected.
Old Irish, also called Old Gaelic, is the oldest form of the Goidelic/Gaelic language for which there are extensive written texts. It was used from c. 600 to c. 900. The main contemporary texts are dated c. 700–850; by 900 the language had already transitioned into early Middle Irish. Some Old Irish texts date from the 10th century, although these are presumably copies of texts written at an earlier time. Old Irish is thus forebear to Modern Irish, Manx and Scottish Gaelic.
The Germanic spirant law, or Primärberührung, is a specific historical instance in linguistics of dissimilation that occurred as part of an exception of Grimm's law in Proto-Germanic, the ancestor of Germanic languages.
Like many other languages, English has wide variation in pronunciation, both historically and from dialect to dialect. In general, however, the regional dialects of English share a largely similar phonological system. Among other things, most dialects have vowel reduction in unstressed syllables and a complex set of phonological features that distinguish fortis and lenis consonants.
Sievers's law in Indo-European linguistics accounts for the pronunciation of a consonant cluster with a glide before a vowel as it was affected by the phonetics of the preceding syllable. Specifically, it refers to the alternation between *iy and *y, and possibly *uw and *w as conditioned by the weight of the preceding syllable. For instance, Proto-Indo-European (PIE) *kor-yo-s became Proto-Germanic *harjaz, Gothic harjis "army", but PIE *ḱerdh-yo-s became Proto-Germanic *hirdijaz, Gothic hairdeis "shepherd". It differs from ablaut in that the alternation has no morphological relevance but is phonologically context-sensitive: PIE *iy followed a heavy syllable, but *y would follow a light syllable.
Holtzmann's law is a Proto-Germanic sound law originally noted by Adolf Holtzmann in 1838. It is also known by its traditional German name Verschärfung.
Open syllable lengthening, in linguistics, is the process by which short vowels become long in an open syllable. It occurs in many languages at a phonetic or allophonic level, and no meaningful distinction in length is made. However, as it became phonemic in many Germanic languages, it is especially significant in them, both historically and in the modern languages.
Kluge's law is a controversial Proto-Germanic sound law formulated by Friedrich Kluge. It purports to explain the origin of the Proto-Germanic long consonants *kk, *tt, and *pp as originating in the assimilation of *n to a preceding voiced plosive consonant, under the condition that the *n was part of a suffix which was stressed in the ancestral Proto-Indo-European (PIE). The name "Kluge's law" was coined by Kauffmann (1887) and revived by Frederik Kortlandt (1991). As of 2006, this law has not been generally accepted by historical linguists.
Proto-Sámi is the hypothetical, reconstructed common ancestor of the Sámi languages. It is a descendant of the Proto-Uralic language.
French exhibits perhaps the most extensive phonetic changes of any of the Romance languages. Similar changes are seen in some of the northern Italian regional languages, such as Lombard or Ligurian. Most other Romance languages are significantly more conservative phonetically, with Spanish, Italian, and especially Sardinian showing the most conservatism, and Portuguese, Occitan, Catalan, and Romanian showing moderate conservatism.
Proto-Finnic or Proto-Baltic-Finnic is the common ancestor of the Finnic languages, which include the national languages Finnish and Estonian. Proto-Finnic is not attested in any texts, but has been reconstructed by linguists. Proto-Finnic is itself descended ultimately from Proto-Uralic.
The phonology of Old Saxon mirrors that of the other ancient Germanic languages, and also, to a lesser extent, that of modern West Germanic languages such as English, Dutch, Frisian, German, and Low German.
This glossary gives a general overview of the various sound laws that have been formulated by linguists for the various Indo-European languages. A concise description is given for each rule; more details are given in their articles.
The phonological system of the Old English language underwent many changes during the period of its existence. These included a number of vowel shifts, and the palatalisation of velar consonants in many positions.